“He’s not an athlete,” McNabb said on Fox Sports 1. “He sits in a car and he drives. That’s not athletic… What athletically is he doing?”

The comments reignited a longtime sports debate: What constitutes an athlete? The discussion has been a barroom debate for years with people attempting to categorize fringe athletes like golfers, gymnasts, divers, designated hitters and various Olympians. What’s a sport? What’s an athlete?

While appreciating the irony of a no-title winning quarterback besmirching the name of a six-time champion, I find myself leaning Team McNabb. Even though his comments reeked of lazy NASCAR ignorance — all that was missing was a joke about turning left — McNabb’s larger point has merit. Just because race car drivers use physical exertion in competition doesn’t mean they’re athletes.

Maybe you agree. Maybe you don’t. The more important question is, why do we all care so much?

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports)

The athlete debate is purely semantic. Whether or not you think Jimmie Johnson is an athlete doesn’t alter the fact that he’s undeniably the best driver in NASCAR. (Heck, Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY Sports says Johnson is the greatest NASCAR driver ever.) Believing Jimmie Johnson isn’t an athlete also doesn’t mean you think he’s inferior to people you do consider athletes, like the fourth guy off the bench for the Washington Wizards. It’s merely a classification.

What is an athlete? Taking a page from decades of bad high school papers and wedding toasts: Webster’s defines “athlete” as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.”

Your reaction to the definition is a sporting Rorschach test. A NASCAR fan would say driving a stock car meets all three of those requirements — physical strength, agility or stamina. I’d agree, then point out working construction and mowing the lawn necessitate the same qualities. The NASCAR fan would say, “those aren’t competitions.” I’d say, “neither is climbing Mt. Everest and mountain climbers would fit under your athlete criteria.” We could go back and forth all day.

Eventually I’d bring up Mikhail Baryshnikov, the ballet great who no one regards as an athlete, even though his discipline requires the ultimate in strength, agility and stamina. Baryshnikov shows more athleticism in one grand jeté than David Ortiz does in a season. Yet, my classification regards Ortiz as an athlete and Baryshnikov as a dancer. If it sounds nonsensical, it’s because it is. The whole debate is.

Maybe the uproar over Donovan McNabb’s comments were because they sounded dismissive of NASCAR. It’s hard to say something like “Phil Mickelson isn’t an athlete” without sounding like you don’t respect the skill, power and precision needed to become a world-class golfer.

But saying certain groups of competitors aren’t athletes shouldn’t be a pejorative. Jimmie Johnson is the best NASCAR driver ever. What’s wrong with that?

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